Fitness Trackers May Help Older People Lose Weight

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Fitness trackers have become popular in recent years for people
who want to track their activity and put numbers with their
workout. A new study shows they may be effective in helping older
people lose weight.

Researchers at Wake Forest University worked with 48 obese adults
between ages 65 and 79 for 10 months — including five
months of
effort to lose weight, and five months of follow-up. The
study participants were randomly assigned to either a group that
was given information about dieting and aerobic exercise, or a
group given the same information along with a fitness tracker,
and guidance on how to use it.

At the end of the study, the people who had the
fitness trackers weighed about 10 percent less than their
baseline weight, while those without the trackers weighed only
about 5 percent less, according to the study published online
March 17 in the journal Obesity.

In their conclusions, the authors said the study provides early
evidence that adding a fitness tracker and instruction (which
researchers call a "self-regulatory intervention") to a fitness
regimen may help people lose weight, as well as
maintain that lower weight afterward.

"What this study shows is that this self-regulatory intervention
appeared to improve weight loss and weight loss maintenance,"
said Corby Martin, director of Behavioral Science and
Epidemiology at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and a
spokesman for The Obesity Society. However, he said, the findings
require a lot of context for people who want to
use a fitness tracker to help lose weight.

It's important to note that people with the fitness trackers in
the study had some additional attention to help them meet goals
of changing their behavior, said Martin, who was not involved in
the study.

The key to their weight loss was what researchers call
spontaneous physical activity, which involves daily activity that
uses energy but is not inherently part of an exercise program, he
said. [ 9 Meal
Schedules: When to Eat to Lose Weight ]

"That likely influenced their overall energy balance, and helped
them lose more weight," Martin said, although he emphasized that
this caveat does not detract from the importance of the study.

Although the results may be encouraging for people looking to
find new techniques for weight loss, Martin also said people
should look to the tracker's numbers, rather than those on the
scale, because while weight loss may be a goal for many, it isn't
necessarily the most important for health.

"Everyone wants to talk about weight loss," but it can be tricky
to look to fitness trackers for weight loss help.

"They weren't designed to monitor and track weight loss, they
were designed to track and monitor physical activity," he told
Live Science.

Exercise, Martin said, has many health benefits and is an
important part of a healthy lifestyle, but some of those
benefits, such as those that apply to metabolism and heart
disease, are independent of weight loss, so simply focusing on
weight is the wrong measurement.

"It's so important for us to [exercise], regardless of whether or
not we're changing our body weight," he said.